All in the Family: Famous Families Plagued by Addiction

By SHEILA MARIKAR

March 28, 2012

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Research has shown that substance abuse runs in the family. Exhibit A: Hollywood.

Bobby Brown, the ex-husband of the late Whitney Houston, was arrested for driving under the influence on Monday. His lawyer said Monday that while Brown "has not been convicted of anything associated with this incident," he is "taking this matter seriously and an investigation is underway."

Brown has been convincted of DUI and charged with drug related offenses before, and in a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston memorably detailed the cocaine and marijuana she and Brown did together. Cocaine was also linked to Houston's sudden death in February.

Whether their penchant for substance abuse will plague their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, remains to be seen. That's been the case for five other famous children of addicts:

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Lindsay Lohan and Michael Lohan

Lindsay Lohan's struggles with drugs and alcohol have been front page tabloid fodder since 2007. (To recap: Two DUIs, one charge for cocaine possession.) In that regard, she's her father's daughter. Michael Lohan began using cocaine at 20 and started drinking shortly after that. In 2005, after brawling with his brother-in-law at a first communion party and driving away from the scene drunk, he was sentenced to prison. After getting out in 2007, he checked into a Christian-based rehab center in his native Long Island.

Through his daughter's multiple rehab stints and relapses, he's urged her daughter to do the same. She's due to finally put her 2007 havoc behind her this week, at what could be her final probation hearing.

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Tatum O'Neal and Ryan O'Neal

Tatum O'Neal described how her drug dependence stemmed from her father, Ryan O'Neal, in her 2004 autobiography "A Paper Life." She writes about taking sips of her mother's beer as a 5-year-old, throwing up, passing out, and waking up on the bathroom floor. She describes her father telling her that marijuana is an herb, like parsley.

It led to O'Neal's heroin addiction and a falling out with her father. Outside of his influence, her problems persisted: In June 2008, she was arrested for buying crack cocaine; the same year, her father and his son with the late Farrah Fawcett, Redmond O'Neal, were arrested for possession of methamphetamines.

O'Neal and her father tried to make ammends for a 2011 OWN special, "The O'Neals: Ryan and Tatum."

"I sort of took a journey with my dad with this show to see what would happen. It didn't necessarily -- make us together," she told ABC's "Good Morning America" in June. "It didn't necessarily push us to this happy ending."

Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen

For Martin Sheen, watching his son's 2011 downward spiral -- getting kicked off "Two and a Half Men," bragging about "banging seven-gram rocks" of cocaine -- was a reminder of his alcohol addiction during his early days of fame. The elder Sheen has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous since the 1980s. In April, he told the BBC that the program "has been a lifeline." Though Charlie Sheen told ABC News that he cured his addiction problems "with my mind," his father compared the former "Two and a Half Men" star's problems to a terminal illness.

"So, if he had cancer, how would we deal with him?" he said. "Well, he has another disease and it is equally as dangerous as cancer. And so we lift him up and we pray for him and be present to him. And we try to meet with him as much as we can. But he is an adult and he needs a lot of help on a lot of different levels."

Charlie Sheen also fathered two sons with fellow addict Brooke Mueller in 2008.

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Kelly Osbourne and Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne went heavy on the "drugs" in sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll during his Black Sabbath days. He partied so hard, scientists are mapping his genetic code to find out how he's stuck around so long. One reason, according to Ozzy: His wife. "If it weren't for her," he told the U.K's Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2009, "without a shadow of a doubt, I would be dead."

Their daughter, Kelly Osbourne, took to drugs too, but not for the same reasons as her father. In 2010, she told Shape magazine that she began abusing subtances after being "called fat and ugly in the press" during her time on the reality show "The Osbournes." "I was so angry about the things people said about me," she said. "I truly believe it's the main reason I turned to Vicodin and ended up in rehab three times. I just hated myself."

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Drew Barrymore and John Drew Barrymore

With the Barrymores, it goes beyond one generation. Drew Barrymore's grandfather John Barrymore, the celebrated Shakespearean actor, drank himself to death at 60, according to People magazine. Her aunt, Diana Barrymore, revealed her addiction to alcohol and drugs in her 1957 memoir "Too Much, Too Soon." Drew's dad, John Drew Barrymore, had been arrested multiple times for drug use and public drunkenness by the time Drew was born.

Her quick rise to fame ("E.T.") sparked her addiction. Drew started drinking at 9, smoking marijuana at 10, and snorting cocaine at 12. She was 13 when she first went to rehab, and would go back multiple times before becoming an adult. In a 1989 essay for People magazine, she wrote about her beer drinking, coke binges, and non-stop partying, and how her latest rehab program was helping her deal with substance abuse and psychological issues.

"I'm not psychic," she concluded, "But for today I can stay sober. I never want to go back to my old ways. I know that. That is my future. One day at a time. I'm Drew, and I'm an addict-alcoholic. I've been sober for three months, two weeks and five days, and I'm really proud of that."